Mirian Saez, who has run the agency for several months after its former director was pushed out by the mayor, will return to her post as director of operations at Treasure Island.

Alvarez has run the San Antonio Housing Authority for four years. Before that, he served as the assistant director of the Washington County Department of Housing Services in Oregon and in several housing-related positions in San Diego.

Alvarez's title in San Antonio is president and chief executive officer - a sign he brings a business perspective to his job, which Saez said is desperately needed.

The San Francisco agency is notoriously behind in technology and customer service, with public housing tenants frequently complaining that their phone calls are never returned and that records of their claims and complaints disappear.

"We've got technological updates to do, we've got budget constraints that are going to take a skilled person to tackle, and we've got to do something about customer service," Saez said. "Those to me all take someone who has a particular business mind-set to get it done. I think he's a great choice."

The Housing Authority, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, owns 53 public housing developments that contain 6,360 apartments occupied by about 12,000 low-income tenants.

Alvarez, who did not return a call to his San Antonio office Wednesday, will be paid $210,500 a year.

Affordable Housing Finance magazine recently ranked the San Antonio Housing Authority No. 5 in its annual list of the top 50 builders of affordable housing nationwide. According to the magazine, Alvarez shepherded the start of building 1,282 affordable housing units last year, and 838 were finished on his watch last year. His was the only public housing agency to make the list.

Those will presumably be important credentials as San Francisco aims to remake eight of its most decrepit public housing units under its Hope SF plan and to pay for it by mixing affordable housing and market-rate units. Work at Hunters View in Hunters Point, ranked as one of the worst public housing developments in the country, is under way.

Alvarez will also need to oversee the payment of more than $15 million in judgments against the agency related to a fatal house fire in one of its units and two sexual harassment cases. Saez has begun work on selling properties to get the money paid, but the vast majority of the dollars still haven't been transferred.

Meanwhile, the agency has struggled with dwindling funds from the federal government.

"The Housing Authority is plagued with violent crime, deteriorating buildings and a sadly inadequate amount of funding to address any of the problems," she said. "The tenants are angry and frustrated. It'll take a lot of work to repair the reputation and the relationship with residents."